BUHU

BUHU is an Austin, TX transplant from Wisconsin. They write psychedelic pop music with bits of 80’s rock flair. Frontman Jeremy Rogers is a gargantuan personality; he grins sneakily while barking through a microphone rife with vocal distortion. The band uses LSD riddled visual elements and chaotic, noisy chords to piece together their special brand of space rock. They’re a young band who nabs every opportunity to give back to fans through multi-day “residencies” that include intimate house venues, deejay sets, and club shows. BUHU’s most recent project is “4-track Cinemat, a visual EP that mirrors PHOX’s “Confetti”. Watch them perform these and other magical tracks both old and new.

Band Members

Jeremy Rogers – Guitar, Synths, and Vocals

Clellan Hyatt – Drums

Juan Pablo Mendez – Bass, Synths, and Programming

Hannah Cowger – (additional vocals on Daytona Beach) - Audiotree

Austin’s BUHU hits Minneapolis tonight for the first of a three day Minnesota stay on their ‘Mostly Midwest’ tour (Friday in Winona). Last year BUHU recorded/filmed and released a 4-Track Cinemat—a visual avant garde EP where every single instrument was recorded in a completely different environment. Now they’re on their first tour and putting the finish on a full length album. You can catch them tonight at Honey with WHALE/S, where both bands will perform live + DJ sets in a party showdown, and Saturday at 331 for the reunion of local heroes Red Fox Grey Fox and Hotelecaster.

MFR caught up with Jeremy Rogers (originally a Wisconsin boy) to talk about where the band is at, where it is going, and why they are collectively like Winnie the Pooh. Check it below.

Hello, Jeremy! So, BUHU meets the midwest.
Yeah, the Mostly Midwest Tour. It’s fucking great and I’m loving it.

Touring is new to BUHU, right?
This is sort of our first step. This is our first tour. We didn’t want to do just a three day tour, so we are just going all out. All of the places we are touring to are right in the middle of the country and I think [that’s] important. I think a lot of these places are underserved and also really great places. We want to be their locals. It’s kind of a residency tour: In Kansas we are playing Lawrence and Kansas City. In Oklahoma we are playing Norman, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. It sets nice groundwork to be received well should we come back to any of those cities. We are looking at the entire state as a goal. I think it’s honest for the band and the fans. I’m excited about this strategy.

You seem to have strong support in your local base Austin, TX. Is it weird to step out from that area where people know you into this unknown world?
Not really. When we started with BUHU in Austin nobody knew us. From the first couple shows we did we were received well. It took Austin almost no time at all to accept us and they offered us all of the warmth and welcome a band needs when they first start. I don’t know what it is or why but the city is very warm to music, and there are cities that aren’t. Being from the Midwest you know just as well as I do how hard some of these markets are. Milwaukee? I’ve played and was raised there. If you can make music in Milwaukee and get people out, you can make music and get people out anywhere. You will be fine. This whole tour is about getting us out. I try to be very personal and reach out and let everyone know what we are doing.

In Minneapolis you are playing Honey and the 331 club. Both are intimate venues and could be great for a new (to Mpls) band that is trying to break into the market.
We wanted the Triple Rock at first. We just kind of looked around and Peter (We Are The Willows/Red Fox Grey Fox) helped sort it out with the 331 and it became a win-win situation. It was all to Peter for figuring this out. I hadn’t thought about it that way and that’s what’s great about hooking up with cool local bands.

Let’s talk about the music. You have the 4-Track Cinemat. Looking ahead do you think you’ll keep releasing music in an avant garde style or are you looking to make a more traditional album?
The 4-Track Cinemat was completely inspired by the band PHOX (I used to work with them). They had their Unblushing EP which was really what initially got them going. I thought it was so honest and raw and moved by it personally. We were very DIY and had the ability to do some of these things ourself and felt lucky to do that 4-Track Cinemat. It was avant garde and we knew that if people latched on to it they might understand who we are as a band. Now we’ve been recording since October and just finished (everything is being mixed right now) our debut album. It features our latest single “Daytona Beach”. It will also feature the four songs from the Cinemat. We recorded all of those songs ourselves and we recorded each instrument in a different location. The guitar was never recorded in the same place twice. It was all over Austin. It was a weird thing—sort of a statement about how you can make music anywhere and you can make music any fucking way you want. It was cool. We went far more produced in this album. We did it all ourselves again but we did it all in one room. We didn’t film it this time. We have a good solid album on our hands that we will be releasing this fall and it’s our debut!



What is success to you guys? Not the end game, but what will make BUHU successful right now?
Success for us as a band is being able to play to a full room anywhere we go. That is success. That is at the heart of what we want. That is great because it is a goal that is constantly moving upward. On this tour we are playing a lot of 50-100 capacity rooms and if we can get a full house in each of those rooms than that goal has been met for this tour. It’s a hard goal to meet, especially on a first tour, but it is still there. It’s something to keep looking forward to. Then you move up to 300-500 capacity rooms. We always want to be striving to playing full rooms. That to me is success.

Does the band have pre-show rituals?
That’s funny, we totally don’t. Clellan stretches, I like to be alone, and JP is on the computer making sure everything is going to run right. Clellan jumps around and stretching his arms out getting ready—he’s gotta be limber). I like to be alone because I usually have so many things on my mind. I’m the guy that talks to a lot of people and sets shows up and all that so it’s nice to transition out of business Jeremy to performer Jeremy. Transitioning into my “real job”. JP just wants to make sure the show is great.

If the band could tour with anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be?
I think it would be great to tour with the Talking Heads.

If BUHU’s band dynamics were like a cartoon—which cartoon would it be?
I think it would be Winnie the Pooh. (laughs)

I know that is really weird and super childish. We’re a pretty wholesome group of dudes. Don’t get us wrong, we like to party and stuff, but we overall are very approachable, sweet people. We care about our relationships. That’s totally Winnie the Pooh. Being sweet and nice and taking care of his friends. We’re caregivers!

BUHU + Minneapolis x2*:

with WHALE/S
Thursday, April 16 2015
10p // $5 // 21+
The party is at Honey

with RED FOX GREY FOX & Hotelecaster
Saturday, April 18 2015
10p // FREE // 21+
The party is at the 331 Club

*Friday at Ed’s No Name Bar in Winona, MN. - Minneapolis Fucking Rocks

“I think I might be jealous of how much fun everyone in BUHU is having, because honestly, these guys are ridiculously excited about life.” - Bearded Gentleman Music

After PHOX released Unblushing in 2012, I met Jeremy Rogers, BUHU frontman (and de facto manager) through a cold-call email offering his services as our manager. This was the first time I’d gotten an email like this, but my predestined response was “Yes, and.”

I ought to introduce myself. I’m Matt Holmen, and I play with PHOX but spend most of my time answering emails and stuff.


After a date at Maduro, where I was positively smitten with Jeremy’s storytelling (and hair), we agreed and started working together on PHOX for the next six months. It proved to be a crucial time for all of us. Maybe most clutch was Jeremy booking us a week’s worth of events at SXSW 2013 — while we were all in Austin together, PHOX met basically every member of our future team, including a new manager.

Eek. So, at this point, I had to conceive of the uncomfortable words that, in a strictly business sense, meant “we’re gonna have to let ya go.” This is really hard to say to someone who is primarily a friend and who has also been instrumental to your business. He said he was happy to get us to the point we were at, spent like a rocket booster falling into the ocean after its shuttle hit altitude. :’(

But we both made it out alive. Jeremy moved to Austin for work, weather, and a gal (there are no other reasons to move, but rarely do you get the hat trick). Turns out, all three were crucial in forming the project we’re here today to talk about.

BUHU is founded on a lot of the same principles as PHOX: they’ve got core Midwestern values, caps lock, and a DIY approach. Their music takes those dusty, wood shop hands and lays them on filthy synths and distorted guitars. The vocals are twisted through tuners and filters until the human behind them sounds foreign, like a film adaptation of a book you’ve heard of but haven’t read. Surely there’s a purer form of it, but you like the Hollywood razzle-dazzle and the popcorn kernels on the floor.

Jeremy and I said our “what’s up”s and “fer sher”s over e-lunch via telephone, and I had the sadistic pleasure to begin our interview with the one question no band wants to answer.

Do we want to talk about where your band name came from?

“I mean…” (sighs) “It’s a really short thing with an easy answer.”

It sounds like you don’t want to.

“I can if you want.”

Just tell me, just so I know.

“I already knew every band in the world had the name Boo Hoo, and I wasn’t even necessarily that interested in that band name to begin with. I was just on a fucking Googling spree of band names. I switched out the o’s with u’s and tried that, and all that came up was Urban Dictionary. A BUHU is an acronym for your backup hook-up, your backup booty call.”

That’s actually pretty good. Backup hook-up.

“Yeah, I was actually pretty surprised.”

So, it’s a mistress.

“I mean, everyone talks about Adolf Hitler’s mistress, and look at what happened to him.”

You’ve already said a lot of printable material.

“You bring out the best in me, Matt. What can I say?”



What is the core of your band? Is it an idea? The recording process? Is it the writing? The performance?

“That’s something that we’ve been discovering this whole time. I think what every band does is try to figure that out. The more we go about it, it’s being completely self-proficient in what we do. We can record ourselves. We have great film capabilities. Not too far off of how PHOX started, actually. I’ve never had a band like this before. The whole DIY aesthetic is the center of the band.”

That is the working model. You have the tools. Didn’t you also book other bands at SXSW this year?

“Yeah, totally. The very first event I threw in my life was a SX event, called Freaks Meet Folks. And I threw it again this year, five years later, making it a quinquennial event.”

Quintennial?

“No, quinquennial. Q-u-i-n-quennial.” (laughs) “It’s an event that happens every five years. It was like 38 bands that I booked, on three stages. I did it as a way to… how could I immediately repay these bands that have gone out on a limb to help BUHU on our first tour? And this was it. It was a huge success. We had 3,000 people enjoying them on a Monday, before music even began at SX.”

Well, probably the most fun event we did at SX was the backyard screening of Confetti that you put together.

(laughs) “Yeah, that was just a good, easy, silly thing to throw together that I thought was very appropriate.”


BUHU
“Mostly Midwest Tour”
Spring 2015
4/1 Fort Worth, TX – The Grotto
4/2 Denton, TX – J&J’s
4/3 Norman, OK – Red Brick Bar
4/4 Oklahoma City, OK – Blue Note
4/5 Tulsa, OK – Soundpony
4/7 Lawrence, KS – Jackpot Lounge
4/8 Kansas City, MO – Riot Room
4/9 Lincoln, NB – Vega
4/10 Omaha, NB – O’Leavers
4/11 Des Moines, IA – Gas Lamp *
4/12 Iowa City, IA – Gabe’s
4/13 Daytrotter Studio Session
4/14 Ames, IA – Iowa Music Store
4/16 Minneapolis, MN – Honey *
4/17 Winona, MN – Ed’s No Name Bar
4/18 Minneapolis, MN – 331 Club
4/19 Eau Claire, WI – The Plus
4/21 Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
4/22 WMSE Live Studio Session
4/22 Milwaukee, WI – Tonic Tavern *
4/23 Milwaukee, WI – Cacoon Room
4/24 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club
4/25 Chicago, IL – Cubby Bear
4/27 Audiotree Live Session
4/27 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
4/28 Champaign, IL – Institute 4 Creativity
4/29 Indianapolis, IN – Melody Inn
4/30 Cincinnati, OH – MOTR
5/1 Louisville, KY – Third Street Dive
5/2 Nashville, TN – Queen Ave Collective
5/3 Huntsville, AL – Copper Top
5/4 Birmingham, AL – Syndicate Lounge
5/6 New Orleans, LA – The Howlin Wolf
5/7 Lafayette, LA – Heffe’s Saloon
5/8 Beaumont, TX – The LogOn Cafe
5/9 Houston, TX – Walters
5/13 KUTX Studio 1A Session
5/15 Austin, TX – Cheer Up Charlies
* – BUHU Deejay Set
But for us it was huge. Our live show wasn’t great, but we were proud of the video.

“And that’s so funny, because that’s exactly how we felt until recently. It’s so crazy, Matt, because we’ve been a band since 2013. We still only have, like, 8 songs because we’ve spent all this time mastering the live show. And we just finally figured it out before this SX. Now we’re ready to get it on the road and tour so we can really hone it in and use touring as a way to not just get our name out there but to polish ourselves up in every kind of scenario.”

Oh, you’re doing two Milwaukee shows? Wait, three!

“Yeah, that’s a big part of what we’re doing. It’s called the Mostly Midwest Tour because we’re doing weekend residencies a lot. Milwaukee is my hometown, so it’s very important to me. These residencies typically include a DJ set or a house show or something personal, a studio session, and a big blowout club show.”

What’s the right space for BUHU?

“The tour is going to lend itself to discovering that. We’re playing everything from dive bars to outdoor stages to Daytrotter and Audiotree. We’re playing in people’s houses and 800-capacity stages. We’ve probably played 20 or 30 shows as a band now; not very many. This tour is going to help us figure that out. I personally like… any space where it’s full.” (laughs) “That’s what I like.”

That’s most musicians’ opinion, I think.

“As long as it’s full, I’ll do it.”

Do you love performing?

“Yeah, performing is very much a natural place for me. It’s all about making sure my confidence is there. I’m not terribly good at faking my way through things, but when I’m in the zone and I feel very good, which is most of the time, it’s great.”

Sorry, my mom just got home and put on the news. I had to shut the door.

(laughs) “That’s intense.”

Hearing local news… it just gives me the willies. It’s still the same meteorologist as when I was a kid.

“Some things never change!”

You know, I’m starting to gain an empathy for journalists that I didn’t have before. Trying to come up with good questions is hard. The last thing I ever want to hear a journalist say is “Where did you get your band name?” And that was the first thing I asked you.

“That’s interesting. Well, to me, I’m just happy anyone’s asking any questions. I’ll talk about anything. I love to talk.”

That’s brilliant.

“It’s true. You know it’s true.”



So, is 4-Track Cinemat the newest thing?

“Well, yes. That is the live video EP we released where each track was filmed and recorded in a different location. One would be recorded in the refrigerator, some under staircases, some up in trees. The whole concept was to get the best possible image and the best sound out of the space we were using. …

(Side note: Funny, that’s the order we prioritized, too, during Confetti.)

… It was probably one of the hardest things but also the most natural things the three of us have ever done. It’s too much, you know, to get super anal about so you just gotta gotta get out there and do it. Just make something that honest and that fun.”

It ties into the quinquennial approach: You can discover the meaning or pattern after you’ve made it. Seems like the same thing you’re talking about here.

“For sure. Or just letting the process, you know, discover me. I even take back that whole DIY thing I said earlier, because as this conversation is unfolding I really think that is what the heart of the band is. And it took this conversation to maybe kind of discover that. But that is how I always have been my whole life, you know, is that I just set out to do something with a goal in mind, and that’s how the goal changes and shifts into a different goal. You let it unfold and you do the best you can and you follow the pattern you let it lay before you.”

BUHU plays at the High Noon Saloon in Madison on Tuesday, April 21 (6:30 pm) with Oh My Love. That’s Matt Holmen’s birthday, so you should do *something* to celebrate. - Jonk Music

http://www.austinchronicle.com/austin-music-awards/year:2014/category:best-of-the-year/1619667/

Best New Band: Migrant Kids
Runners Up
2. The Nightowls
3. Dawn & Hawkes
4. Ulrich Ellison and Tribe
5. Buhu
6. Sweet Spirit
7. Wonderbitch
8. Wrenfro
9. Casual Strangers
10. Spanish Gold - Austin Chronicle

“A glimpse at an alternate timeline where Minus the Bear and Passion Pit came up from the same scene together, [BUHU] places the guitar front and center with arpeggios and riffage and heroics.” - OVRLD

Quickly following Lunch, the Austin band, BUHU, set the stage for Peach Kelli Pop with their electro punk sounds that energized and excited the audience. Their playful banter with the audience included an invitation to all Nebraskans in the bar to figure out what was wrong with their tour poster by the end of a song. Making it a fun game, a brave soul took up the challenge that would eventually lead him to have a free poster and everyone in O’Leavers with five dollars off their tour poster — the mistake being Nebraska’s abbreviations were ‘NB’ instead of ‘NE’. The crowd forgave him with a hearty laugh and the night continued on with BUHU’s trademark sound, reminiscent of ’90s video games and hallucinatory TV on the Radio. - HearNebraska.org

#22 Buhu

Visionary dance pop trio Buhu have taken the underground by storm. On a solid foundation of great songs and dynamic performing, the band's calculated approach to self promotion--spearheaded by front man Jeremy Rogers--has earned them a surplus of the kind of YouTube & social media buzz that any band would hope to achieve in their first year out of the gate. - Sonic Vault Austin

ISTHMUS PICK: BUHU is a pop-rock band that parties harder than your freshman-year roommate. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the three-piece specializes in weird synth tones, stadium-sized guitar riffs and electronic backing tracks. For anyone whose idea of a good time involves auto-tuned dance music, this show is a must. - See more at: http://www.isthmus.com/events/buhu-oh-my-love/#sthash.WsddGzw0.dpuf - Isthmus

Guitarist and vocalist Jeremy Scott Rogers, bassist Juan Pablo Mendez and drummer Clellan Hyatt make up the Austin band BUHU (pronounced "boohoo"). The trio isn’t entirely pop, nor entirely electronic-rock, nor entirely experimental rock, nor entirely dance. Instead, BUHU is some amalgamation of all these differing styles, a kind of party-pop if you will, and their goal is to make their audience a little bit happier by way of their music. From the sounds of their recently released EP, 4-Track Cinemat, they have the experimental know-how and electronic-rock chops to make that happen.

Rogers and Mendez first met by chance at a bar where Rogers worked. After talking about music, the two began experimenting with a new sound that drew on Mendez’s computer background and Rogers’ penchant for instrumental experimentation. The two forged a new way forward, which was later structured by Hyatt’s drums. It’s tricky to define BUHU’s music, since it dices and splices from a range of genres and styles to create some Frankenstein-esque pop sound that Rogers describes as “post-pop.” By way of comparison, think of Ratatat’s electronic experimentation with Maps & Atlases’ syncopated rhythms with TV on the Radio’s deep and often stylized vocalizations.

While relaxing lakeside in Wisconsin, Rogers took some time to talk about the band’s origin story and their unique approach to music.

Smile Politely: How did the three of you meet up? How did this project start?

Jeremy Scott Rogers: Well, first, I was bartending at Spider House [in Austin], and J.P. came into the bar. He’d just moved from Barcelona, but he’s lived his whole life in Mexico City. He came into the bar and we started talking about music. He said he is a producer and he plays bass. And, you know, I play guitar. I never worked with music in the way that he worked with computers and things like that. So we got together and started making music, and it was really cool what we were writing. We were both having a lot of fun. We both saw how cool it would be if we got a drummer.

And then I was bartending again on Thanksgiving. We decided to open the bar, and no one showed up because it was Thanksgiving. Then four people just rolled in, and they were super drunk and it was awesome. We started playing 90s dance jams. One of the dudes was Clellan, and he asked me if I played any music, and I said, “Yeah,” and he said, “Cool, man, I’m a drummer. Count me in.” It was awesome that he had a feeling.

SP: The timing of that is so perfect.

Rogers: Yeah, it happened just a few months after J.P. and I wrote a few songs. Clellan came in and put beats down to all of them. Even when we already had some electronic beats, we kept them. He helped us round out everything, and we finished arranging the rest of the songs with him, and wrote all the lyrics out. That was our 4-Track Cinemat. And then we wrote some more songs, and here we are, we’re on tour.

SP: So is the songwriting process primarily you and J.P.?

Rogers: Well in the early days J.P. and I were writing stuff in the box. Now we’re writing it where we get upstairs to where our practice space is, and we start playing things, we start jamming, and then we take it to the box. There are definitely two distinct ways of writing that we’re going through right now, and we’re still discovering that, too.

I feel like that’s a never-ending process for bands, like, “What is the writing process?” But it’s cool, you can hear the difference in the songs. The ones where we jammed out will have typically less electronic and computer instrumentation going on, whereas the ones we wrote in the early days, we threw every sound that we could in to make it really big and really awesome. It’s cool because it’s two different sounds, but they work well together.

SP: That’s what I’m so struck by: how many elements you have going on, and what control you exhibit over them. It seems as though the writing process would become much more complicated, but you’ve got such a handle over it.

Roger: Well I have to hand a lot of that over to J.P., because he’s been doing a lot of this since he was four years old. His father had a recording studio, he was a producer, and I see pictures of [J.P.] and his brother when they’re just kids and they’re right up there on a Mac, like one of the first Macs ever made, and they’re pressing the space bar, like doing stuff. It’s crazy.


SP: I know computers play a huge role in the recording process, but I don’t always associate computers and music writing. I can see how they pair so well together.

Rogers: Yeah, it’s crazy. One of the first things I learned in this world is that you have to have a clear goal of what sounds you want to use for something, because otherwise you’ll spend hours and get nowhere. It’s not like jamming at all. It’s like having a clear vision of what a song can be, or its fullest possibility sonically. That’s where Ableton is super awesome. It has all the sounds, like every digital sound you could ever want is there. So if you have an idea of what you want, you can describe it, and find that sound. Then that sound inspires another sound maybe. You have to have very clear goals, otherwise you can just drown in it. It’s kind of cool to have that world at your fingertips.

SP: So I read that you describe your music as “post-pop.” Can you expand on that idea?

Rogers: Well, I mean, you look at post-hardcore, and post-metal, and post-this and post-that, but there isn’t a post-pop genre, I notice. Because pop seems to be this consistent thing. And while I believe that pop really is just a formula of a song, like verse, pre-chorus, chorus, we do all those things, and we have those elements of pop, but the time signatures that we tend to use are different. We have things where it’s 4/6 for a whole song, which is a really interesting way to play on 4/4 timing. It’s also how we’re melding rock elements with pop elements with these big produced sounds with these super lo-fi sounds, it’s definitely post-pop. There are moments where I feel we’re throwing back to the 80s and things like that, but I feel like, sonically, we’re really progressing. We’re really doing something.

SP: In terms of the time signatures, do you see a bit of math rock bleeding into the sound?

Rogers: Not really, because it’s not that complicated. And it’s not even so much that the time signatures are different. Everything is in 4/4, pretty much, but it’s when those things are syncopated.

SP: I can see with a lot of the guitar finger work, a lot of the rhythms are coming through as well.

Rogers: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is. But there’s nothing too mathy at all.

SP: Why the choice to record in such non-traditional environments?

Rogers: Well, it’s interesting. It’s almost impossible to really understand that without seeing the video. It was made to be a live video EP. If you go to the playlist, and you start it from the first song to the end song, the whole EP tells this silly, fun story. And every instrument was recorded in a completely different location, save for drums and vocals, all those were recorded in the same spot. I think the statement of why we did it was, what is music really? And what does it mean to record music? You can do it anywhere was that statement. Also, just the fact that we wanted to do something that was really loud, that said, “We’re here.” That was the most important thing for us.

It turned out really cool because you can hear the flaws in it, or maybe you can’t but we can. There’s this endearing rawness to it because we focus not just on playing the part, but getting the best possible audio recording, and also getting the best possible video recording. It was a very hard intense process, but it was really unique. I don’t feel like anyone’s done too much totally like it, save for a few bands out there.


SP: It sounds like you guys are equally musicians and performance artists.

Rogers: We try to be. When people see us live, our energy onstage is really high, and we look really good. We look more like a rock ‘n roll band with a lot of crazy elements onstage, so we haven’t figured out how to make what happened in the video happen on stage in a certain way.

SP: How do you do that?

Rogers: I don’t even know. We have projections onstage. It’s hard to keep that going everywhere we go. Even then it’s got to be about the music. The video itself is its own art piece, and it’s also important to separate ourselves from that video. We have to be this moving, changing thing.

SP: What are the goals?

Rogers: This tour is about creating demand, because there’s no point in touring if there isn’t demand. This time I laid this tour out in such a way so we’re driving about an hour and a half between each city.

SP: That’s really cool!

Rogers: It is really cool because not only is it super cost effective but we’re investing a ton into each city and state, which is really cool because the next time we play one of those cities it’ll have a much bigger impact. I think the goal for us is to be able to play to a full room wherever we go. Once we meet that 100-cap room goal then we can expand to that 300-cap room and then that 500-cap room. It’s hard because people want to talk about labels and booking agents. Everyone wants to see you do it yourself and that’s the only way you can do things, and I think that’s the most honest way to do things.

SP: Definitely. Where does the name BUHU come from?

Rogers: It’s funny, J.P. and I were trying to think of band names before Clellan even joined the band. We were just trying to think of stuff, and I was Googling band names like crazy, because every time you think of an idea you Google it to see if it was taken, and of course Boohoo was taken. I wasn’t even attached to that idea at all, but then I sort of thought to myself, “What if we switched the O’s with U’s?” And the only thing that came up was Urban Dictionary: “Back up hook up.” [J.P.] said he really liked it because you could say it in any language. [J.P. in the background speaks up at this point.] He’s overhearing the conversation; he’s chiming in because he has a point. He says we also chose that because it’s all about making party music, and having fun and dancing. The whole idea of being able to have a B.U.H.U.

SP: You are providing the environment for someone to find their next B.U.H.U.

Rogers: Laughs. That’s exactly right. Yeah!

BUHU will be passing through Champaign on Tuesday, April 28th as part of their Mostly Midwest Tour. They perform at the Institute 4 Creativity. $5 cover.

- See more at: http://www.smilepolitely.com/music/cry_no_more/#sthash.szA0ALUZ.dpuf - Smile Politely

Me alerta Damià de Buhu, una banda de Austin que el pasado 14 de febrero puso en circulación Daytona Beach. Se trata de una canción impulsada con el corazón, con sintetizadores que se solapan y multiplicidad de capas y remolinos pop que la primera vez aturden, a la segunda empiezan a dejarse digerir. ¿Post pop?
En su bandcamp se puede escuchar su EP 4-Track Cinemat del 2014 que tiene 4 canciones como cuatro soles. - Escafandrista Musical

Valentine's is a weird day to release a track, but it kinda makes sense from the strange dudes of BUHU, who use a big ole heart with their name in it as their band logo. BUHU (maybe it stands for "By Us Hug Us?" No idea.) did just that this Feb. 14th with "Daytona Beach," a track of dance-y, weirdkid pop that accompanied the group's announcement of their upcoming Mostly Midwest Tour (April 1-May 15).

BUHU's been on the local radar for their 80s-tinged, future-gazing quirkpop for a bit since releasing their excellent 4-Track Cinemat earlier this year (listenable in its full pop goodness here), and "Daytona Beach" is an indication that they may be turning up the Quality Knob on the avant-garde pop machine even further. This track has a lot of moving parts, like lead vocals that indicate BUHU has a healthy interest in Depeche Mode-era Britpop, backing vocals reminiscent of a cheerleading chant and the sick, bouncing, dance-punk drums that are a standard for BUHU tracks. All of it sits on top of a wall of modern synths and furiously picked guitar, and when it all comes together in the final thirty of the track, it's one of the better pop moments to come out of an Austin band in a long time. Get in on the goods below, and check their tour poster here to take your body to the party physical. - The Deli Magazine

Brilliantly constructed electro-pop hits make up the masts of the BUHU ship with textured vocals and undefeatable DIY ethics filling up their sails. Red Fox Grey Fox join them, fitting the theme with strongly written songs bearing electronic tinges underlain by strong musicianship and lofty vocals. RFGF are known in the area for crack songwriting and high-hitting choruses that inspire boisterous sing alongs. BUHU’s thoughtfully blended party-pop will lift the spirits and toss the skirts (whomever is wearing one) with sexy dance-anthems and powerful party-lauds.

The Interview Part:
Work so hard… SO SO HARD. Every day, every week, have a clear goal that you all agree upon and invest your time and money wisely to make that goal come to fruition. It takes the entire band. You have to really work hard. Can’t stress that enough.

Origin story. Something about a radioactive KORG bite? Jeremy was
helping PHOX explode, something with SXSW, and then 2013 BUHU is bestowed
upon the world. How’d you all get together?

Jeremy Rogers – We don’t own any KORG synths but if we did… They would most definitely be radioactive. BUHU met at Spider House in Austin, TX. I served both JP and Clellan at the bar. JP and I met first. We got together and wrote the foundation of the 4-Track Cinemat. I met Clellan on Thanksgiving a few months after. He came in and we played 90′s jams all night. He asked if I was a musician and told me he was a drummer. He was exactly what JP and I were looking for.

How are your musical backgrounds different from what you play now?

Clellan Hyatt – Right out of college, I started playing professionally for the Texas country circuit. Then I moved on to blues, funk, rock, etc… In the end I always wanted to play this kind of music. The opportunity just never presented itself until I met these dudes.

Juan Pablo – When I was 4 I started violin and piano. I grew with music and always being in a band. Every kind of band… Grunge, Tango, bossa nova… I studied film and sound design in college and that’s when I got into electronic music and producing.

JR – I didn’t start playing music til I was 15. The first time I picked up a guitar, I just started writing songs. Even if they were only two notes or one chord. I was completely self taught and it took me a long time to find myself musically. It was a long road. I listened to everything and tried to apply it to my music. Here I am now. Still doing the same thing.

Two weeks in to the Mostly Midwest Tour. How are you all holding up?

JP – AMAZING! I want to do this forever.

CH – Fucking great, man…

JR – Doing very well. This is my career!

What does the “Midwest” mean to you all? Jeremy grew up in Milwaukee,
right? Clellan, Juan?

JR – I grew up in Eau Claire and spent most my adult life in MKE… The Midwest is my source of inspiration, my internal compass… It’s my home.

CH – The land of opportunity. I almost went to college outside of Milwaukee. Now I get to live my almost college dream!

JP – A very unique combination/mash-up of cultures and people. #tacopizza

I feel like this is an appropriate space to embed your live video EP, 4
Track Cinemat. I think it will break up the text nicely. Is that alright?

BUHU – Yes. As long as you also put the soundcloud link to our latest single, “Daytona Beach” somewhere in here as well. We released it in honor of the Mostly Midwest Tour.




It snowed here last week. Coming up from Texas, how do you feel about
that?

JR – Fine.

JP – I’m wearing shorts and a tank… regardless.

CH – Yeah… Cocaine is a hell of a drug! DON’T DO DRUGS!!!!

Was anything or any particular scenes painfully frustrating in
recording 4 Track Cinemat? There were some odd locations, like the
refrigerator, which I imagine brought some lighting and sound quirks.

JP – Syncing up the video to the audio while keeping the good visual takes with the best audio takes. It felt hard to make it cohesive… to keep the story in tact. Recording all the scenes… knowing it was going to be a pain in post production. But that’s what made it special.

CH – We only had 4 hours to record all of the drum takes and film them at the same time while changing props/scenes. LSD had to be recorded in one take or we couldn’t do it at all. But tha’ts what made it special. #Stressssss

JR – The 4-Track Cinemat was largely my brain child and I didn’t have the know how or the experience to pull off something like that. Convincing JP to do it in such a DIY way was really hard… He would have done it much differently. But that’s what made it special.



How much of Cinemat did you do yourselves? Were there any points where
you sought outside help?

BUHU – We brought in friends and loved ones to do everything from helping us decorate, be dancers, be light techs, be the cat (the theme of the 4 track Cinemat), provide us with their spaces to use in the shots… It took a whole community.

You just formed up in 2013 and you’re in the first half of a six week
tour. I feel like a lot of younger bands would love to be in your position
with that kind of acceleration. Any thoughts or advice on how to get it
done?

BUHU – Work so hard… SO SO HARD. Every day, every week, have a clear goal that you all agree upon and invest your time and money wisely to make that goal come to fruition. It takes the entire band. You have to really work hard. Can’t stress that enough.

Are you heading up to the Cities straight away after the show on Friday or
do you want to go hiking on Saturday? Winona is sinfully beautiful and it
looks to be good weather.

BUHU – A couple drinks and you can make us do anything.

- See more at: http://thenoisyneighbor.com/buhu-a-couple-drinks-and-you-can-make-us-do-anything/#sthash.30HhDO2H.dpuf - The Noisy Neighbor

If you’re not a fan of wearing pants, the Logon Cafe’s “No Pants Weekend” means revelers can party down sans pantaloons all weekend.

Local and touring musicians will don their favorite non-pants attire (think bathing suits, outrageous costumes, leather, anything both hilarious and legal) and let all of their rock vibes hang out.

On Friday night’s line-up: Frenetic local indie rockers Good Grief and Purple, the hard-partying punk three-piece that just wrapped up yet another massive European tour. You should catch one of their few Beaumont shows before they hit the road for a U.S. tour this summer.

Rounding out the bill is Austin post-pop/electronic band Buhu, which describes itself as existing in a “hyper, fantastical reality that is born out of summer love between ’80s babies and online thrift store junkies.” This electro party rock is where ’80s dance music and modern indie rock meet.

I chatted with Buhu vocalist Jeremy Rogers about smoothies, music-making, touring and confetti.

Q As a musician myself, I’m always interested in band dynamics. Sometimes I feel that being in a band is like trying to make a delicious smoothie with lots of creative juices that may not mix. I hope that didn’t sound dirty. What do you think makes Buhu “click”?
A There are a couple things at work here. When we first started writing, J.P. and I would just write all the songs out in Ableton and then transpose them to Live.

When Clellan joined the band, we started writing live during practice, and then we took it to the computer to finish writing all the other electronic parts — two very different styles of writing that we can tap into at any time, but the computer is at the heart of everything we do.

We all play to the click that it provides us because we have to. The computer is the boss. I also want you to know that we all just downed some band smoothies as we answered this. Smoothies are our breakfast of choice.

Q In the video for “GLTRSKL,” I see Buhu has a penchant for brightly colored graphic tees, confetti, gold glitter, streamers and rocking out — what else does the band use to create the best vibes for live shows?
A “GLTRSKL” is just one of the four videos from our EP Cinemat. Our live show and Cinemat are quite different.

When available, we like to play with projections — cats, lasers, the works. Typically we just bring a lot of energy to the stage.



Q I’m excited that you are playing with Purple who, like you, know all about the hard work of touring nonstop. How do you guys stay grounded and keep the energy high with such busy schedules? Have you all abandoned your day jobs yet?
A When you are in a touring band, it’s your job, your career. You gotta be good at your job. If you aren’t good at your job, you are gonna find yourself out of work.

We have pretty lax service industry jobs on the side. Touring is important to do when there’s demand. It’s equally important to take time to write and create content so you can create that demand.

No Pants Weekend Part 1
Featuring: Buhu, Purple, Good Grief
When: 8:30 p.m. Friday
Where: The Logon Cafe, 3805 Calder Ave., Beaumont
Cover: $5 - Cat5

Speaking of rock shows, there was a nice one at O’Leaver’s last Friday night. Austin band BUHU was a two-man crew featuring one guy on synths and the other on guitar and vocals, creating a catchy post-wave music, thanks in part to great programming and to the lead guy’s sweet vocals. Fun stuff.

Peach Kelli Pop at O'Leaver's April 10, 2015.
Peach Kelli Pop at O’Leaver’s April 10, 2015.

BUHU was followed by the all-female power-garage sound of Peach Kelli Pop. It is, no doubt, sexist to call this band an “all-female group” (why not refer to BUHU as an “all-male group”?). That said, the band epitomized the best parts of a long history of all-female punk rock bands. I loved their style, their sound, their energy. I’ll have a snippet of their music in this week’s podcast, online Wednesday. - Lazy-I

“Each of the four tracks on BUHU’s new release went through a lengthy creative process, with every part staged, filmed and recorded separately. What we get from their labor of love is a four-part audio-visual dance party.” - The Deli Magazine

After months of filming and recording, BUHU is ready to unleash their 4-Track Cinemat over the course of a brilliantly planned residency at Swan Dive every Friday this July. Who is BUHU and what the heck is a 4-Track Cinemat? None of us here at Do512 knew so we went to the source and asked BUHU to tell us.

—-

Do512: Who are you, BUHU?

BUHU: We are a band. Clellan plays drums, JP plays bass/ableton and Jeremy sings/plays guitar. We are a three piece post-pop outfit from right here in Austin. We make music and videos, like this:



Do512: Cool. You have a great lineup for July 4th. What should we expect?

BUHU: Our opening night is called the Force Of July. Its sponsored by Pragma Events. We will have bands playing both outside and inside at Swan Dive/Barbarella. We are stoked to be shredding with such homies as Holiday Mountain, Corduroi, Flavor Raid, I’d Die For Lo-Fi, All People, Auroravore and The Digital Wild.

There will also be FIREWORKS! Not real ones though… we couldn’t get away with that. But we have a live projection artist who will be projecting fireworks and other psychedelic images on to all of the acts as they play. There will be DJ’s inside Barbarella spinning the hits and we will also be showing the first video off our 4-Track Cinemat, “GLTRSKL” You can hear the song on our Soundcloud.



Do512: That brings us to the next question. What is a 4-Track Cinemat?

BUHU: Its a term we invented. Its the only way we could describe what is essentially our video demo. We recorded four songs like any other band. But what makes our demo really strange is that we recorded every track of every song in a completely different location while filming it. When you watch the GLTRSKL video that we will be releasing on July 4th, you are going to see scenes where JP is playing bass synth while Jeremy is getting tattooed at Sideshow Tattoo. That is really happening.

The audio you are hearing and the image you are seeing is JP recording bass in that environment while Jeremy twitches like a baby man child from the tattoo he is actually getting. Every scene is different and was solely curated by BUHU. As you watch the 4-Track Cinemat, you will see us recording inside refrigerators, in the backs of trucks driving through downtown, up in trees and in a hundred other unique places that nobody should probably ever record in.

Do512: That sounds like it was a lot of work.

BUHU: It was really fun… but you’re right, it was hard. We just wanted to do it for the sake of doing it. We are glad we did it too. The quality and uniqueness of the audio/footage is incredible and far better than we ever expected. Nobody else has done it to the extent we have as far as we know. Probably for good reason. But we like pushing the envelope!

Do512: Do you see yourself doing it again?

BUHU: Uhhmmm … No.

—-

Well there it is! BUHU in a nutshell. Make sure to catch BUHU on the opening night of their residency this July 4th at Swan Dive/Barbarella where they will release the first video from this crazy experiment. You can enter for the chance to win a pair of tickets on Do512, and see the lineup for all of BUHU’s residency nights right here. - Do512 Blog

“BUHU is sure to be one of the hottest names in indie very soon.” - Red River Noise

“These videos do a great job of visualizing a feeling BUHU’s music ignites. It’s happy and carefree and oh-so-drug-dreamy.” - Sonic Vault

“Dust off the old dance party for something a bit more avant-garde.” - The Chronicle